Here it is at last, only a week later than I promised... I'm sorry, loyal readers. Bad blogger.
I was an SVPCA virgin. I've been to loads of SVP meetings - four in fact - but never SVPCA, even though it was on the doorstep (and I'm gutted because I'd have loved to have dinner under the Diplodocus in the Natural History Museum. In 2002 and 2003 I was in the USA. In 2004 and 2005 I didn't have any holiday left. And in 2006 I was on my way back from honeymoon and trying to find a new job. So it was all done in a very roundabout way, and it was commented on, not least by my supervisor PU.
We started off with the annual auction, where I was proud to have won (among other things), "Classification of Vertebrata: Recent and Extinct" by Hans Gadow (1898 - I love really old books for the insight they give us into what was known at that time, more on the history of palaeontology), "A Method of Illustration of Zoological Papers" by H Graham Cannon (1936), and a Jackalope, which made Brent Breithaupt (the donor of said Jackalope) very happy. You can find two wonderful photos of yours truly staring slack-jawed at the auction on the SVPCA website, although I probably didn't make much of an impression because my name isn't on the bottom.
We headed straight into talks on Wednesday, me fortified by a non-fat almond latte (buy me one of these from Starbucks if you ever want a favour) and a double espresso chaser. Highlights of the day were Per Ahlberg's talk on the pectoral fin of Panderichthys (with the ever-cool CT scan animations), and Leslie Noè's presentation on the Leeds Collection (of which Cetiosauriscus is a member - fascinating to see Leeds' correspondence, and I think I shall celebrate Cetiosauriscus' birthday on 21 February each year now), and although I had seen Marc Jones give a similar talk at LERN a few months ago, I never tire of seeing his rhynchocephalian morphometrics in action.
Then we were herded onto the Clockwork Orange. This was something of a novelty for the London-based palaeontologists, who looked altogether too happy to be on the Subway...
We were very hungry after the Lord Provost's reception (although the wine was good), and Marc redeemed himself for the Great Tapas Bar Incident of 2003 (buy me a beer sometime or pester me relentlessly in my comments and I'll fill you in) by finding a great tapas bar for us to eat in.
The second session on Thursday was diverse, including great presentations from Paul Barrett on Mesozoic dinosaur diversity and Nizar Ibrahim on North African dinosaurs. But the show-stopper came from Vincent Fernandez, who performed the most amazing 3D imaging of embryos - if my memory serves me there was applause as he stripped away the substrate to reveal the egg's tiny occupant.
It was theropod, theropod, theropod, not-theropod, theropod after lunch (the second of those being my first opportunity to see Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology in action), followed by a discussion on what to do in 2009 when SVP comes to Blighty. I was knackered, and not a fan of whisky, so I skipped the evening activities and went back to the in-laws for food and sleep.
Refreshed by a good night's sleep and more coffee, I was ready for Friday's talks. I was really excited to see Neffra Matthews' presentation, and I'm wondering whether photogrammetry is perhaps a less expensive way of getting 3D data than a 3D digitiser. It would certainly be easier to photograph a sauropod femur than to try to digitise it. Hot on her heels was Brent Breithaupt, discussing family groups present in footprints - this was the research we saw a snapshot of in the BBC's "My Pet Dinosaur". Paul Upchurch ate humble pie (but only for a second or two) over Euhelopus and Richard Butler discussed the plant-dinosaur database he's been constructing for his postdoc.
After lunch I decided to give the talks a miss and head to the Hunterian Museum to geek out.
I think my favourite exhibit of all had to be the Dicynodon. The coolest trace fossil ever - a mould of "a curious hole" in a lump of New Red Sandstone!
I came back in time for the final session, and for Jeff Liston, he who organised the whole gig, to show us Leedsichthys in all its glory:
We assembled for dinner at the Arisaig. I was accompanied by the hubster and his brother, who did well to avoid the all-seeing camera of Richard Forrest (just look at the Galleries!). One of the French students foolishly asked Paul what haggis was made of, and Paul foolishly told her exactly what it was. His accent must have been almost inpenetrable for her, but she definitely understood what offal was!
We decamped when they shut the restaurant to the Living Room next door but one, and stayed there until they shut. I think the party then continued at the halls of residence. I reckon Paul will be up for a city break in Dublin in a year's time. Who knows, by then I might even have something to present. PU mentioned "data collection" when I went to see him this week, so that's quite promising.
I'll tell you this though - it's more tiring than SVP, going to SVPCA. At SVP you can duck in and out of talks - you pick and choose your sessions. You're also normally in the conference hotel (after a mile walk in Arizona there's no way I'm doing anything other than the conference hotel again!), so you can pop back to your room, or even sit in the hot tub between talks. It saved me a fair bit of money staying at the in-laws, but it was a long commute and added at least two hours onto my day compared to everyone else's.
But I'm buzzing and raring to go for SVP. I was delighted to have so many of my readers coming up to me and saying how much they enjoy reading The Ethical Palaeontologist. Thank you all of you for giving me a massive ego boost.
I was an SVPCA virgin. I've been to loads of SVP meetings - four in fact - but never SVPCA, even though it was on the doorstep (and I'm gutted because I'd have loved to have dinner under the Diplodocus in the Natural History Museum. In 2002 and 2003 I was in the USA. In 2004 and 2005 I didn't have any holiday left. And in 2006 I was on my way back from honeymoon and trying to find a new job. So it was all done in a very roundabout way, and it was commented on, not least by my supervisor PU.
We started off with the annual auction, where I was proud to have won (among other things), "Classification of Vertebrata: Recent and Extinct" by Hans Gadow (1898 - I love really old books for the insight they give us into what was known at that time, more on the history of palaeontology), "A Method of Illustration of Zoological Papers" by H Graham Cannon (1936), and a Jackalope, which made Brent Breithaupt (the donor of said Jackalope) very happy. You can find two wonderful photos of yours truly staring slack-jawed at the auction on the SVPCA website, although I probably didn't make much of an impression because my name isn't on the bottom.
We headed straight into talks on Wednesday, me fortified by a non-fat almond latte (buy me one of these from Starbucks if you ever want a favour) and a double espresso chaser. Highlights of the day were Per Ahlberg's talk on the pectoral fin of Panderichthys (with the ever-cool CT scan animations), and Leslie Noè's presentation on the Leeds Collection (of which Cetiosauriscus is a member - fascinating to see Leeds' correspondence, and I think I shall celebrate Cetiosauriscus' birthday on 21 February each year now), and although I had seen Marc Jones give a similar talk at LERN a few months ago, I never tire of seeing his rhynchocephalian morphometrics in action.
Then we were herded onto the Clockwork Orange. This was something of a novelty for the London-based palaeontologists, who looked altogether too happy to be on the Subway...
We were very hungry after the Lord Provost's reception (although the wine was good), and Marc redeemed himself for the Great Tapas Bar Incident of 2003 (buy me a beer sometime or pester me relentlessly in my comments and I'll fill you in) by finding a great tapas bar for us to eat in.
The second session on Thursday was diverse, including great presentations from Paul Barrett on Mesozoic dinosaur diversity and Nizar Ibrahim on North African dinosaurs. But the show-stopper came from Vincent Fernandez, who performed the most amazing 3D imaging of embryos - if my memory serves me there was applause as he stripped away the substrate to reveal the egg's tiny occupant.
It was theropod, theropod, theropod, not-theropod, theropod after lunch (the second of those being my first opportunity to see Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology in action), followed by a discussion on what to do in 2009 when SVP comes to Blighty. I was knackered, and not a fan of whisky, so I skipped the evening activities and went back to the in-laws for food and sleep.
Refreshed by a good night's sleep and more coffee, I was ready for Friday's talks. I was really excited to see Neffra Matthews' presentation, and I'm wondering whether photogrammetry is perhaps a less expensive way of getting 3D data than a 3D digitiser. It would certainly be easier to photograph a sauropod femur than to try to digitise it. Hot on her heels was Brent Breithaupt, discussing family groups present in footprints - this was the research we saw a snapshot of in the BBC's "My Pet Dinosaur". Paul Upchurch ate humble pie (but only for a second or two) over Euhelopus and Richard Butler discussed the plant-dinosaur database he's been constructing for his postdoc.
After lunch I decided to give the talks a miss and head to the Hunterian Museum to geek out.
I think my favourite exhibit of all had to be the Dicynodon. The coolest trace fossil ever - a mould of "a curious hole" in a lump of New Red Sandstone!
I came back in time for the final session, and for Jeff Liston, he who organised the whole gig, to show us Leedsichthys in all its glory:
We assembled for dinner at the Arisaig. I was accompanied by the hubster and his brother, who did well to avoid the all-seeing camera of Richard Forrest (just look at the Galleries!). One of the French students foolishly asked Paul what haggis was made of, and Paul foolishly told her exactly what it was. His accent must have been almost inpenetrable for her, but she definitely understood what offal was!
We decamped when they shut the restaurant to the Living Room next door but one, and stayed there until they shut. I think the party then continued at the halls of residence. I reckon Paul will be up for a city break in Dublin in a year's time. Who knows, by then I might even have something to present. PU mentioned "data collection" when I went to see him this week, so that's quite promising.
I'll tell you this though - it's more tiring than SVP, going to SVPCA. At SVP you can duck in and out of talks - you pick and choose your sessions. You're also normally in the conference hotel (after a mile walk in Arizona there's no way I'm doing anything other than the conference hotel again!), so you can pop back to your room, or even sit in the hot tub between talks. It saved me a fair bit of money staying at the in-laws, but it was a long commute and added at least two hours onto my day compared to everyone else's.
But I'm buzzing and raring to go for SVP. I was delighted to have so many of my readers coming up to me and saying how much they enjoy reading The Ethical Palaeontologist. Thank you all of you for giving me a massive ego boost.
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